2011 Mac Mini - Speculation

[auero]

Think we will see a Mac Mini without a disk drive?


Also. Does the Mac Mini output Dolby / True HD audio via HDMI?

Not True HD. It will do Dolby Digital and DTS.

That's one of the reasons I moved to a Windows Based Machine. For $700 I was able to build a machine with a i5 2500k processor, 8gb ram, 2TB drive, case, etc. The machine uses roughly 30 watts which is more than what the mini used but what can you do. The i5 chip is extremely impressive and has handled everything great.

*Note: My soul purpose for this machine was for it to function as an HTPC.*

I do miss having the mini I must admit but if apple does eventually upgrade the line and make something appealing I'll just run FreeNAS or some flavor of linux on this box for media storage and get a mini for xbmc.

I only pushed for this window box because I got a Ceton Quad Cablecard tuner. But that didn't work out so well.

 

[auero]

on the plus side, if lion comes out before the new mini... buyers shouldn't have to fork out extra dough to upgrade right ?

Usually theres a grace period that they either give you a free copy or discount it.

 

[MacinJosh]

The waiting game is kind of strange without inside info. Let's say that the mini still hasn't been refreshed at the end of July. Do you still wait, or do you worry that they'll refresh it in August? If it hasn't been refreshed in October, do you still wait just in case they refresh in November? The longer you wait the more losses you commit to... because you've traded the use of the computer for the time you were waiting for nothing. That's also the case if it gets refreshed and you choose to buy the old model anyway.

Considering that used, non-refurbished 2009 minis are still selling for over $500 on ebay, I'm also a tad skeptical that the 2010s are going to be much cheaper than $599 (which the refurbished ones are already selling for).

Bottom line: if you have use for the mini now, buy it now (refurbished if possible). The waiting game is for the birds.

Not when you already have a computer with almost the same specs. I want the new Mini, I will wait for it as long as it takes, and I won't lose anything while doing so.

 

[Tulpa]

Not when you already have a computer with almost the same specs. I want the new Mini, I will wait for it as long as it takes, and I won't lose anything while doing so.

Agreed. I was directing that more at people who actually have a need for the mini now.

 

[Lankyman]

Tulpa wrote.....Oh please. Most users are not going to be bumping up against the edge of the 2010 mini's capability for years. Latest and greatest obsession is a sad thing to see.

That statement is very true, whilst most industries rely on having the latest and greatest the tech industries have grown and grown on the back of having faster and faster CPUs larger storage capacity etc. etc. I read a report somewhere that stated most consumers throw their old computers away having never reached even two thirds limits of the machines capabilities. We all seem totally obsessed by clock speeds and RAM. In reality unless your a gamer then something like a Mini is more than adequate for use as your main PC.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

That statement is very true, whilst most industries rely on having the latest and greatest the tech industries have grown and grown on the back of having faster and faster CPUs larger storage capacity etc. etc. I read a report somewhere that stated most consumers throw their old computers away having never reached even two thirds limits of the machines capabilities. We all seem totally obsessed by clock speeds and RAM. In reality unless your a gamer then something like a Mini is more than adequate for use as your main PC.

Agreed. The Mac Mini actually goes way above and beyond what an average person needs to listen to music, watch videos, use iTunes, browse the web, etc.

 

[MattyO]

I waited for the Imac with the (hopeful) matte display option ... didn't happen.

I am waiting for the mac mini refresh ... hasn't happened.

I am going to purchase the mini with or without the refresh when it comes with Lion.

I am done waiting ...

 

[Tulpa]

I waited for the Imac with the (hopeful) matte display option ... didn't happen.

I am waiting for the mac mini refresh ... hasn't happened.

I am going to purchase the mini with or without the refresh when it comes with Lion.

I am done waiting ...

Join us...don't be afraid!

But I've got a gut feeling that Lion is going to go in the wrong direction (ie towards iOS).

 

[srf4real]

Join us...don't be afraid!

But I've got a gut feeling that Lion is going to go in the wrong direction (ie towards iOS).

I am also very leery of Lion moving towards iOS. for a phone or web tool sure it's pretty fine.. but I will never let go of my keyboard and mouse and large ips monitors, which I have no intention of swiping with my grubby fingers. I tried the swipe pad on a 27" iMac in the store today and was repulsed with the lack of precise control, like a big, fat, stupid mousepad on a laptop. Kind of OT, i guess.. but mini coming with Lion may not be such a great thing. Unless you can turn all that touchy feely crap off completely!

 

[mistamidget]

SSD in a Mini, it would be nice. But I wouldn't want to see the price hike.

For a desktop I'd be reluctant to loose the DVD though, I use it for importing DVD's/CDs into iTunes.

USB or Firewire connected optical drives is the way to go these days in my opinion as they get used less and less. It's easy to get it out of the cupboard and plug it in when needed.
As technology changes you just get a new drive to catch up. For instance you can plug an external Blueray drive in but you will never be able to upgrade a Mini to an internal Blueray drive.
Flash drives and SD's are great for data portability so I don't burn data CD/DVD's much at all anymore.
The small form factor is one of the Mini's strengths and I think the Mini's internal space should be used for faster processors, more RAM and better Graphics.

 

[Lankyman]

I am also very leery of Lion moving towards iOS. for a phone or web tool sure it's pretty fine.. but I will never let go of my keyboard and mouse and large ips monitors, which I have no intention of swiping with my grubby fingers. I tried the swipe pad on a 27" iMac in the store today and was repulsed with the lack of precise control, like a big, fat, stupid mousepad on a laptop. Kind of OT, i guess.. but mini coming with Lion may not be such a great thing. Unless you can turn all that touchy feely crap off completely!

Agree 100% - dumbing down an OS for ease of use/mass market appeal may well have it's place, but so does a proper desktop based OS with more control handed back to the consumer and proper file structures etc. I too dislike swipe pads and touch screens. Being retro isn't always a bad thing.

 

[kazmac]

interesting

Agree 100% - dumbing down an OS for ease of use/mass market appeal may well have it's place, but so does a proper desktop based OS with more control handed back to the consumer and proper file structures etc. I too dislike swipe pads and touch screens. Being retro isn't always a bad thing.

I don't like the Magic Trackpad either very clunky and unprecise for me, but then I'm trackpad challenged. But dumbing down the OS when the Mac OS is already so easy to use (the reason why I've stuck with Macs for over 15 years now), well since I haven't seen Lion yet I won't comment.

As long as I am able to use Mice and Keyboards for input onto my computer and a keyboard for the iPad, that'll work. I will miss the dock in Lion though. IMO that' s a much more streamlined, elegant way to control exactly what applications you want immediate access to.

Anyway, looking forward to the next Mini release as I am one of those people who have way too much computer for my needs now.

 

[Minicube]

I guess it's just me who likes the OS of my Mac much better than the OS on the iPhone/Pad? It's too early to judge, but it concerns me that the new Mini may only boot into Lion. Let's hope it's released before Lion and we then have the option to run either OS.

 

[J-W]

Personally, I don't see any reason why the MacPro, iMac and MacMini shouldn't have the same chips in them! They each serve a different purpose...

MacPro - for people that need/want expandability and the ability to use their monitor of choice.
iMac - want the power of the MacPro but an all-in-one solution and are not worried about expandability
MacMini - for people that want the power of MacPro and to use their existing monitor but do not need expandability.

With the advent of Thunderbolt I would go for a MiniX that was a tad bit taller with all the power of the MacPro, a true swappable graphics card and SSD.

In fact, keep the MacMini as is and offer the two models...

Is anyone else also sick of the lack of customizability of Macs, these days?

 

[lvlarkkoenen]

Personally, I don't see any reason why the MacPro, iMac and MacMini shouldn't have the same chips in them! They each serve a different purpose...

Actually, Mac Pro's also pack quite a punch in terms of CPU/GPU, and to put chips that strong in a Mini would be too expensive.

Is anyone else also sick of the lack of customizability of Macs, these days?

To be honest I'm not. I find it delightfully simple. I either think it's worth it, or not. Honestly, with the lack of a Mini refresh, I'm almost inclined to buy a Windows PC, but there's way too much decisions you have to make. How much money do you want to spend on which parts, do they match, etc.

 

[MacMadHatter]

I think we'll see a mini update before the pro gets updated. I'm not 100% sure, but I think Apple has a design problem with discrete graphics cards in the Mac Pro. I do not think that the 16x PCI Express bus can handle the graphics card and the 10G of bandwidth that Thunderbolt offers. If it can that's fine, otherwise the card maker has to provide a special connector so TB can get to the mini displayport, and/or have separate ports for TB elsewhere on the machine that does not power a display.

I think Apple will wait for newer chips in Q3 for updating the Pro.

 

[Lankyman]

With the advent of Thunderbolt I would go for a MiniX that was a tad bit taller with all the power of the MacPro, a true swappable graphics card and SSD.

I think far too many people have got hung up on the idea of SSD and what it can do. For the average user e.g. surfing the web, iTunes, office tasks, email and maybe the odd bit of photo editing then SSD adds little value to the computing experience. If you are a user that requires multiple applications running at the same time or video rendering etc. then SSD would be of value. Even then it does depend on how fast the machine is in the first place. A machine with low RAM slow entry level CPU etc. will not see much benefit in adding SSD whereas a user with "hot specs" will. I fall into the first camp i.e. average user, so my money would be better spent on RAM or a better monitor etc. Even boot times won't be blistering if the machine has low specs and for my money 15 seconds faster booting means little as I always use "sleep mode" anyway.

 

[asdf542]

So if the new mac mini's switch to an i3/i5 cpu does this mean they are more likely to have an Intel graphics card or and AMD (ATi) one?

If they come with Intel + i3, would it be better the get that or the nVidia + C2D that exists now?

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12655062/

There's no physical room in the chassis for discrete graphics - mentioned many times before.

Not quite, Sandy Bridge is the first time for the integrated GPU to be on the same die as the CPU meaning there could very well be enough room. Besides the fact that I've only heard of the 13" MBP logic board being too small to fit a discrete GPU.

Here's the 2010 Mac Mini logic board:

As you can see there would be more than enough room for a discrete GPU if the IGP is on the same die as the CPU(which it is in Sandy Bridge).

Here's the 13" MBP:

The difference in available room is pretty much night and day.

Edit: Also for good measure, heres the 15" MacBook Pro logic board (orange is the discrete AMD 6490M GPU, yellow is the CPU/IGP)

Use the RAM module to compare relative size with.

 

[turley97]

The worst part about all this is that, regardless of how much research we, the consumer, put into it, it is all up to Apple. We could figure out a way to put together a 12 core mac mini with a 2gb discrete graphics card and 32gb of ram, but if Apple doesn't want to do it, they won't. It's nice to see that the possibility is there, but I'm afraid that the only thing it might accomplish is getting our hopes up just to be let down by Apple's real refresh. I hate to be negative, but we might be psyching ourselves up for nothing. Trust me when I say that I want this as much as anyone, but we have to simply take speculation for what it's worth.

 

[asdf542]

The worst part about all this is that, regardless of how much research we, the consumer, put into it, it is all up to Apple. We could figure out a way to put together a 12 core mac mini with a 2gb discrete graphics card and 32gb of ram, but if Apple doesn't want to do it, they won't. It's nice to see that the possibility is there, but I'm afraid that the only thing it might accomplish is getting our hopes up just to be let down by Apple's real refresh. I hate to be negative, but we might be psyching ourselves up for nothing. Trust me when I say that I want this as much as anyone, but we have to simply take speculation for what it's worth.

Which is why I provided two likely routes that Apple could take on the next Mac Mini here.

 

[koolkat]

Why go for the mini rather than MB/MBP?

I had thought about going for the mini, then I thought again and bought a MBP for a mid-range at-home big-monitor (27 inch ACD) setup.

It is difficult to justify the mini just to save a few hundred dollars, or about 30%, over the 13 inch macbook/mbp. The difference is even less if you use the mb/mbp trackpad and keyboard - but I have external wireless devices and leave lid closed at home. When you look at the computer/monitor combination spending 1700 for mini/ACD vs 2000 for mb/ACD is only 15%.
To compare to current macbook, which is the closest in performance:

processor - same (if it occurs, 2011 upgrade likely to have similar performance specs to current 13 inch MBP)
memory - similar options - can get more on macbook/mbp
hard drive - same options other than mini server, but 750gb avail on mbp
ports - similar, cheap adapters for HDMI and DVI avail for MB/MBP
power consumption - similar
battery and screen - use your laptop on the road too, or on the couch, and don't lose your docs when the lights go out
size - mb/mbp bigger but size is not really an issue as either takes very little space.

Apple may even drop the mini - I just don't see it having much of a market to fill.

 

[philipma1957]

I had thought about going for the mini, then I thought again and bought a MBP for a mid-range at-home big-monitor (27 inch ACD) setup.

It is difficult to justify the mini just to save a few hundred dollars, or about 30%, over the 13 inch macbook/mbp. The difference is even less if you use the mb/mbp trackpad and keyboard - but I have external wireless devices and leave lid closed at home. When you look at the computer/monitor combination spending 1700 for mini/ACD vs 2000 for mb/ACD is only 15%.
To compare to current macbook, which is the closest in performance:

processor - same (if it occurs, 2011 upgrade likely to have similar performance specs to current 13 inch MBP)
memory - similar options - can get more on macbook/mbp
hard drive - same options other than mini server, but 750gb avail on mbp
ports - similar, cheap adapters for HDMI and DVI avail for MB/MBP
power consumption - similar
battery and screen - use your laptop on the road too, or on the couch, and don't lose your docs when the lights go out
size - mb/mbp bigger but size is not really an issue as either takes very little space.

Apple may even drop the mini - I just don't see it having much of a market to fill.

I am thinking of MBP 13inch over a 2011 mini.

 

[cfedu]

I had thought about going for the mini, then I thought again and bought a MBP for a mid-range at-home big-monitor (27 inch ACD) setup.

It is difficult to justify the mini just to save a few hundred dollars, or about 30%, over the 13 inch macbook/mbp. The difference is even less if you use the mb/mbp trackpad and keyboard - but I have external wireless devices and leave lid closed at home. When you look at the computer/monitor combination spending 1700 for mini/ACD vs 2000 for mb/ACD is only 15%.
To compare to current macbook, which is the closest in performance:

processor - same (if it occurs, 2011 upgrade likely to have similar performance specs to current 13 inch MBP)
memory - similar options - can get more on macbook/mbp
hard drive - same options other than mini server, but 750gb avail on mbp
ports - similar, cheap adapters for HDMI and DVI avail for MB/MBP
power consumption - similar
battery and screen - use your laptop on the road too, or on the couch, and don't lose your docs when the lights go out
size - mb/mbp bigger but size is not really an issue as either takes very little space.

Apple may even drop the mini - I just don't see it having much of a market to fill.

+1

unless you have lots of money to blow and are willing to pay for the clean aesthetics of the mini the macbook pro is the way to go.

added portability,
High def webcam and a Mic
track pad
keyboard
easier to upgrade the hard drive
is eligible for the free ipod touch promo if it ever comes
better resale value

after you factor in the resale value and ipod touch, they will end up costing the same amount.

unless you need the aesthetics of the mini or you are getting one used for a great price (this is why I have had a few) the macbook pro is supreme.

the mini does have 2 monitor outputs but once thunderbolt display with daisy chaining are out even that one last advantage will be gone

 

[Tulpa]

I had thought about going for the mini, then I thought again and bought a MBP for a mid-range at-home big-monitor (27 inch ACD) setup.

It is difficult to justify the mini just to save a few hundred dollars, or about 30%, over the 13 inch macbook/mbp. The difference is even less if you use the mb/mbp trackpad and keyboard - but I have external wireless devices and leave lid closed at home. When you look at the computer/monitor combination spending 1700 for mini/ACD vs 2000 for mb/ACD is only 15%.
To compare to current macbook, which is the closest in performance:

If you're buying an expensive Apple 27" display, then yeah, the price difference for the combination becomes less significant. But with the combos you're talking about the monitor is at least half the price of the combo (or in the case of the mini combo, the monitor is 60% of the price!) so it's a bit contrived of a comparison. I mean, that's like justifying buying a $100 bike rack vs. a $50 bike rack by noting that there's not much difference once you add the price of the car to put the bike rack on.

The mini is more of an option for people who want to buy a non-Apple display or have a display already. It's not for every situation, of course.

I'm still mystified by posters acting like webcams, mics, mouses, and keyboards are significant expenses.. they're cheap, indeed free if you already have some laying around.

 

[cfedu]

If you're buying an expensive Apple 27" display, then yeah, the price difference for the combination becomes less significant. But with the combos you're talking about the monitor is at least half the price of the combo (or in the case of the mini combo, the monitor is 60% of the price!) so it's a bit contrived of a comparison. I mean, that's like justifying buying a $300 bike rack vs. a $50 bike rack by noting that there's not much difference once you add the price of the car to put the bike rack on.

The mini is more of an option for people who want to buy a non-Apple display or have a display already. It's not for every situation, of course.

you can use an existing display or buy an non apple display with a macbook or any mac computer.

No need for a UPS battery back if you have a macbook as well if you where planning on buying one for your mac mini.

300$ bike rack is 6 times more then 50$. the Macbook is not even 2 times the mini in cost.

with a free ipod touch, better resale value , no UPS battery back, one could make an argument that the Macbook total cost of ownership is less.